Surreal
by Kesshou Uryou
Summary: A story about life the way it is at that problematic age. Love, laughter, tears, alcohol, drugs, and sex. These high school students are about to learn that life is what you make of it.


**_-Surreal-  
_**Kesshou Uryou

**Summary: **A story about life the way it is at that tricky age. Love, laughter, tears, alcohol, drugs, and sex. These high school students are about to learn that life is what you make of it.

**Disclaimer:** I disclaim every claim that you think I have made, hence the word disclaimer. Story is mine. First/last disclaimer for _Surreal_.

**Chapter One**

Nervousness, anxiousness, fear, and curiosity were a strange combination to be stirring in your stomach. Add the butterflies that had also made their home in the same habitat, and she had to struggle to keep her face pleasant and not screwed up in distaste. School starting came with the uncertainty of her schedule, and it had always given her this feeling.

This time was like all the previous ones, considering that she was used to switching schools periodically, often sometime while school was in session because of her father's archaeological digs. It was only different in this instance because her family wasn't going through the same chaotic procedure. There was no new site for her father to work on. It was only her going moving out right now, and she had arrived in a place she was considering to perhaps be hell.

There was nothing to support that conclusion yet except the huge fact that she was completely lost on how boarding school worked, and she knew no one else who attended here. The returning teenagers must have known and befriended at least a couple of other students. Private boarding school could prove to be fatal for her.

Trust her to do poor enough to get her father to send her to boarding school. Of course her brother had supported her father's decision completely. Apparently this was all part of helping her find her balance between extra curricular activities, a social life, and school work before she headed off to college. Never mind her own feelings on the matter.

That's right, she was a senior now, her last year of high school before she headed off to the hassles of college life. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, perhaps going to boarding school would leave her with some experience before she had to go next year. She had never spent time away from any of her several homes before. She'd have to do with the situation. No turning back now.

Unfortunately, the ride had been one way, and in itself it hadn't been the most pleasant. She had her family drive her off to a bus stop to catch a bus that the school provided for those a reasonable distance away. She would have tried to mingle or make small talk if they hadn't all obviously known each other already on the bus. That and she had kind of fell asleep on the bus. Even now she was rubbing an eye as one shoulder boosted a duffel bag and her other hand trailed behind with a rolling suitcase in tow. She hadn't exactly gone to bed early enough, procrastinating her packing until the last minute. Unfortunately the time she had to catch the bus at her stop was a little too early for her liking. She had been tired, and she would admit it.

Now drifting through a crowd of teenagers, sidestepping an occasionally very slow paced student, she was just another face in the crowd, walking unhindered by anyone else's conversation. Although it implied she was antisocial or something to the same degree, she liked it all the same. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, being as she knew very well the first impression is what got people hooked.

Right now she was happily putting off any communication on all levels. That could wait. Fitting in and not becoming someone completely different always took her at least a little time to settle in at the new school. She'd just have to remember to not make mortal enemies left and right.

At the moment, though, trudging through the crowd proved itself to be semi-difficult. No one spared her a glance as they chatted or rushed to their dorms, rarely deterring her for a couple of moments as they brusquely pushed their way by her. As she continued walking in the thicket of students, she noticed others around her seemingly hadn't found a familiar or welcoming face either, but she didn't venture over to them. She'd keep herself focus on getting signed in, getting her keys, and getting used to this fate. In the meantime, if anyone, better yet that guy a couple of feet away, looked at her, she'd give a smile in return. Even if it would be slightly strained.

Those being her reassurances (yes, admittedly a sad lot), she followed those who were hauling off their belongings too. Along the way she found herself already trying to memorize the buildings to get an easier time on navigating. She had a tendency to get lost, so starting now could not hurt her. However, she did let her face fall flat as she realized the campus was larger than she had expected. She supposed this place wasn't known for its academics for absolutely no reason. Which was good, in a way, because it better be living up to what her father had to pay for the outrageous tuition. Though those thoughts could wait because trailing after the students paid off in finding the right building.

The building that she had walked off to was definitely not the largest on the grounds, and it probably was were all the administrators had their offices. She had to impatiently file into one of the few lines. All were around the same length, and as she came to learn soon enough, they all moved at the same pace that was too slow for her liking. She got the occasional glance to which she kept up her promise although it was with a trying smile. She was tired and out of place right then, and she was sure they'd understand if she told them that. Of course, she wasn't going to in the slightest.

In between the meeting of random eyes, she spent her time edging inches at a time closer toward the counter, fidgeting with her shirt, and counting the number of partially noticeable cracks in the ceiling. (Well, it was an old school.) Each step she took made her loose her place, and off she'd go, realizing all to well that she'd get a crick in her neck for this..

By the time she had reached the desk, her unused voice breathed out her name quickly, quickly slinging the bag that contained the uniforms over a shoulder. She was surprised that her room had a code for entering purposes that was printed on her received schedule sheet. Trying to absorb her order of classes, she made a motion to leave. Then she remembered she didn't know where the hell to go.

She took a tentative swing of her head to view the impatient people lined up behind her, but she took the chance of letting her question come to the surface. The apparently stressed out (probably overworked at the moment) woman gave a slightly negative look before pulling out a map of the campus, circling the building they were in and drawing a thin and brisk line to the dorm building in question. Her tool had been an innocent pen lying on the employee's side of the counter. She waved her off with a hand gesture and some words that resembled something along the lines of welcome to Tomoeda Academy: Private High School. That was a mouthful. She knew teenagers, and she knew there was a shorted version of it for the lazy, also known as teenagers. Probably it was Tomoeda Academy or Tomoeda or TA. They all worked to the same degree.

Now whirling around to push past the still arriving students, she felt a twang of sympathy for the woman who had to sit through even more key and uniform distribution and crossing off of names. Still, jostling through the crowd of students just to get outside and be on her way made her forget about all of her compassion. She finally slipped out one of doors when someone was leaving too, and she nearly knocked him over in her anxiousness to leave the overpopulated room. All he received was a mumble of sorry.

On one shoulder there was still the duffel bag, and the other had her uniform that was already crumpling up to the point that she wished desperately that they didn't wrinkle. She didn't know what they even looked like, let alone what fabric they were made out of, because the students obviously wouldn't be in them a couple days before classes officially started. Now, however, she wasn't using her eyes for that as her one free hand held the unfolded map close to her face. She let out a sound of triumph when she figured just which way to go (after a game of roundabout walking and nearly falling down a flight of stairs in her inattentiveness).

Moving the map away from her face, she let a weary smile grace her features as she entered the coolly air-conditioned dorm building. She all too soon grimaced at the prospect of climbing several small flights of stairs, though, upon finding her hall (the convenient plaque on the wall had told all). It seemed the farther she walked down the hallway, the more stairs there were. Trust her to get the dorm building on the hill. Oh, and have one of the farthest rooms down the damn hallway.

She finally reached the last level part of the hall, instantly noticing a taunting elevator. Brushing past it with a dark cloud hanging over her head, she found the room that she had been assigned. The door was a thin piece of some kind of wood painted a navy blue. It accompanied the slightly lighter tinge of blue the walls shared with the always welcomed splotches of white. The number on the door, which was painted in a gold color, was slightly chipped as the walls were.

Losing the negative look, she opted for a neutral one before she gave a small knock in case someone was already there. It was a precaution to let them know she was coming inside. That was, as soon as she could unfold the sheet of paper that contained the code for the door. She stared at the little number pad warily before placing a finger tentatively above it, ready to place the first of four numbers in.

She was left frozen like that when the door opened up with a smiling girl, sporting glasses and a short hairstyle. She lost the smile for a second as her eyes dimmed a bit before they brightened and she pulled the contours of her mouth up fully again.

"Oh, are you my roommate? Sorry, about that. I thought it was someone else. Didn't mean to look unwelcoming." She moved aside for the newcomer to move inside before closing the door gently. She waited until the girl had dropped her belongings near or on the untouched bed before continuing, "I'm Yanagizawa Naoko."

The girl looked up from inspecting the bed with a simple, "Kinomoto Sakura."

Right off the bat, Sakura could tell that Naoko was talkative in her own right, which she wouldn't mind once she got to know her. Frankly, she could be too, but seeing as she was new here, she wasn't ready to talk up the storm of the century. But as far as the all important first impression went, it hadn't gone over too well in Sakura's opinion. Which, of course, was just _great_.

Naoko scratched her head sheepishly for a moment, which Sakura observed from the corner of her eyes as she went to open up her suitcase. She hoped she had brought enough. She would be wearing the uniform a lot, right?

"Um, before you unpack, do you think you could do me a favor?" Sakura blinked before her mind spun. Right, her self created first rule of boarding school, don't create hell in your dorm room; be nice to your roommate. But damn, she was already twisting the sacred rule.

"Ok?"

Naoko smiled again. Sakura attempted.

"Great!"

**Parting Words: **_Title explanation will come later. Story will most likely be really long in the chapter sense, but the chapters should be really short like this one. Rating will probably move up to M a long while from now, but there will be no limes/lemons. The story is a high school fic, but I almost chickened out of the plan when I wanted to add intrigue and mystery to the boarding school. The story will be updated as irregularly as it can possibly be: tomorrow or a year from now._

_This is an attempt to connect with the readers on something you know about. Let's face it: the majority of you are preteens/teens. So you are experiencing high school or shortly will be. So this story, slightly inspired from my own life, is to get you to connect with the story. It's a shaky start, but I want to keep the story simple. The plot is not emphasized for once (amazing for me) as I'd rather have something here that plucks at the heartstrings of at least one person. Then I'll be happy. There will be no crazy plot events, rushed romance, or anything like that. The tagline I'm trying to work with here is: "This is life."_

_The characters are to be kept as in character as possible while drawing from my own life experiences, but there are no characters based on anyone from real life. However, sometimes my life will blur in with the story, and maybe I will tell you some of the real things. A little tidbit: that annoying hallway does exist, just not in the same colors. Oh, and yeah, I've never gone to boarding school. So that's basically how things are going to be drastically different._

_Please forgive any mistakes you see as this story is a lesser yet fun project that I take nowhere as much time on as I do for _Elemental Aeon_. Check that story out if you'd like. I'd appreciate it._

_'Til next time!_


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